COVID-19 is spreading through humanity like a forest fire; rapid and unpredictable. Even with the best crew response, sometimes things keep getting worse.
Within my first season living in Cascadia I had to run away from a forest fire. In a matter of hours communication changed from “start to pack your things, but no rush,” to “GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” It was terrifying not knowing where I was going to sleep each night, not knowing who made it out ok.
One of the main ways to fight forest fires is to have a diverse forest, so only the forest floor catches fire while the trees stay unharmed. Because of our changing climate and lack of funds towards caring of our national spaces, fires have become larger and larger.
A forest cannot disperse on its own. Humanity can. Wash your hands, only go out when you need to, and keep informed. Kurzgesagt did an excellent summary of what we know and what we can do.
During my first week of quarantine I came across dozens of articles detailing how serious this is; death tolls, lack of supplies, even a company suing a Fab Lab for 3D printing medical valves! But I also started to see articles of planet Earth taking a deep breath of fresh air.
In Singapore otters were filmed laying around in parks. With no humans around they are given space to play in the grass.
Photo courtesy of Omni Channel
Because of no boat traffic in Venice, canal pollution has been at all all time low. So low in fact that dolphins started to swim the canals!
NASA took pictures showing how much less pollution happened in China during their quarantine. Having humanity stop for even a month can have a drastic effect on the health of our planet.
What has the COVID-19 response shown so far?
Humanity can act quickly when working together
Natural systems can start to recover if given space
So the question must be asked;
Will quarantine be part of the solution to the Climate Crisis?
I am a science educator first and foremost. I don’t have the qualifications to speak how we would do this economically or politically. But to give us more time to find solutions to this crisis, maybe we need to slow down.
What if, once a year, we took a month off. As one humanity we would agree, let’s say in April, to shut everything down. All grocery stores would be open (as well as other essential services) but everything else would be suspended. Companies could ask people to work from home, as my employer has done, so we could use this month ‘economically productively.’ But for the planet it would be a break, every year.
There will be plenty of unexpected results. In Lopburi, Thailand monkeys are used to being fed by tourists. Now that no tourists are coming the monkeys are starving and taking to the streets, even fighting over banana peels.
Overall though, I think we would see a positive effect on the health of our planet. But like the monkeys in Thailand, humans are social creatures. I have had countless friends saying “This quarantine is driving me insane. I don’t know what to do with myself.” While in quarantine we need to train ourselves to live completely differently than we usually do. Here is some advice that helped me live through isolation.
Isolation
After graduating college all of my belongings had to fit in my car. From fall of 2014 to fall 2017 I moved a total of nine times. Many of those times were meeting new people, completely different than the group before. The people in New Hampshire were obsessed with board games, while those in Cascadia loved to cook and sit beside a fire.
It took years, but I learned how to be by myself. Not that I didn’t hang out with the people around me. But I couldn’t handle the personality whiplash from changing groups so often. Video games became one of those constants. While my classmates in the mountains would belittle me (in a loving way) about bringing my DS on a hike I would respond “I’ll stop bringing this if you stop bringing coffee.” They never did stop bringing that french press on our trips.
The most challenging time I was in isolation was in Stehekin. I was in a remote town, no internet service, no cell service, and my new friends in the area were often busy. 80% of my nights were spent alone. While I won’t detail the dark things that I thought during that time, the list of things below is what got me out of it.
you are an astronaut
The place you live is your space station. Maybe you have crew members, maybe you don’t. But when you are flying around the Earth you start to lose your sense of time, which way is up and down.
Start by making your space station habitable. Don’t let things pile up. You have the time so deep clean everything.
Keep a schedule. Days can start to blend into one another while in the same environment. Wake up every morning around the same time saying what day it is, and what you are going to do.
Set realistic goals. Now is the time to do things you never have time to do! Break down a lofty goal into daily, bite size chunks. I recommend having a few big goals and working on each a little every day.
Vary your activities. As fun as it is to spend 12 hours in Animal Crossing, don’t spend more than two hours doing the same thing. Mix it up between cooking, reading, cleaning, and relaxing. Also, if you have an instrument, now is the time to pick it up again.
You are an animal. As an animal you still need food, water, shelter, physical activity, and communication. Make sure you are eating well, working out, and talking to people (even if over the phone). There is a lot you can do indoors, as Gov. Schwarzenegger points out.
If you need some more advice, here is what some Astronauts recommend themselves after living in space. You got this. Together we can Flatten the Curve.